Throughout this description and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps.
The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that that prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia.
An indirect evaporative cooler is described in our co-pending Australian patent application 2012900025, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In the specification of that co-pending application there is shown a cooler using a known evaporative heat exchanger but employing separately controllable fans for the dry passage inlet or supply air ducts and the exhaust air duct. The advantages of the FIG. 4 embodiment thereof are to provide a more compact indirect evaporative cooler in which there is less wastage of energy in the driving of the air flows required for its operation, and ready controllability over a range of operating conditions by means of a controller controlling one or both of the fans. The invention described in AU 2012900025 builds upon earlier developments in the construction of a heat exchanger as disclosed in WO2006074508.
The FIG. 4 embodiment described in our aforementioned co-pending Australian patent application presents an opportunity to combine a plurality of indirect evaporative heat exchangers into a single unit, with manifolded supply air and exhaust air to form large scale coolers capable of supplying indirectly evaporatively cooled air in relatively large quantities for a range of cooling loads up to such as for commercial or industrial buildings.